I bet I know what they will do, you know how the last of us is getting an online multiplayer mode next year supposedly? I bet Sony will release the games they make as they do now, but release a multiplayer only complementary game using the same assets, like the last of us 2 and its coming multiplayer game. The single player experience you pay full wack for it, but the multiplayer is included in ps+,or now or whatever it is called. They could even do a ps now exclusive 1-2 hour side mission in the last of us 2 for instance.
That way they get the upside of keeping what they are doing currently with the benefit of driving ps now subs
Sony’s game pass wouldn’t be a major threat to Game Pass. Why? Sony simply has less capital to invest in it than MS. It is a battle Sony would lose if both companies took it seriously. MS can withstand losses longer and can outbid Sony on acquisitions. I am not saying Sony will fail to make acquisitions. Sony could have better relations with some companies than MS but overall MS has much more money to spend and is already heavily invested.
Additionally, game pass as a model doesn’t jive with Sony’s business plan. Gamepass makes owning a console an option. This hurts Sony. They are in the lead for console sales by a large margin. They would have to give up a lot of that. For MS this isn’t as much of a concession. You would lose on game sales. Sony’s games have sold better. Again, another larger loss for Sony than MS. Finally, most of Sony’s big games are experiences that are story-driven and can be completed within a month by the average gamer. This hurts the ability to stay subscribed. Compare that to say Halo/Skyrim/etc. Those are games that ppl play for a long time. That helps ppl stay subscribed.
So in summary:
Sony would diminish their position as the top-selling console and its benefits (mindshare, cut of all game sales, etc.)
Sony would lose out on money from its high-selling exclusives
Most of Sony’s big games are games that don’t encourage long-term subscriptions
Sony while losing all that money would need to invest heavily in First Party studios for content
Sony would have a tough time competing with MS for acquisitions
Even after all that Sony would be chasing MS for second place since they are years behind at this point
What Sony will likely do is enable cloud gaming for games you own for a fee or maybe with PSPlus. This lets them keep their business model and still reach a larger audience. They have good incentives to get into cloud gaming but not chase gamepass.
For them it might be a question of whether it’s worth having a gamepass like subscription without expanding their platform to other devices like Ms did with windows and now Xcloud.
But, as Ms also showed. Even if you get your current users to subscribe, that’s on average already more revenue than the average user spends on your platform. And then there’s the side effect that gamepass increased the time subscribers invest on the platform and how much money they spent, so it’s a double win.
Yeah, that’s the biggest hurdle Ms has right now.
They need to revert that while gamepass is still a thing only in their ecosystem and get those games and build an audience for them on Xbox.
